Lady Liberty is no mail-order bride

“Let’s be clear,” as President Obama fondly says. The goal of progressivism is not liberty.

That goal is reserved for ideologies that cherish our founding principles of a small federal government and the protection of individual rights over those of the majority.

So what is the goal of progressivism? It is to attain the perfection of society by leveraging the institutions of government to apply regulations to make it so. That is achieved by expanding the power of the federal government to enable the imposition of those regulations.

The underlying tenet for attaining a perfect society is the assertion that there are sectors of society that are aggrieved, and government has the duty and responsibility to ameliorate.

Therefore, progressivism starts with a list of victim groups that have been seemingly disenfranchised from their entitlements. If one group has more than another, laws must be instituted with the objective of attaining parity. However, those laws are rarely designed to boost the situation of the disadvantaged. They are targeted to diminish the advantage of the achievers.

In other words, it is an ideology, from the bottom up, of jealousy, and from the top down, of guilt. The elitists in power know well how to play both ends to perpetuate tenure in office.

Rights of individuals are subjugated to those of society sectors or the majority. A restaurant owner cannot allow smoking in their own establishment, business owners cannot object to providing contraceptives to female employees, etc.

Corporate enterprises must operate within a framework that promotes parity among society sectors. (Minority hiring mandates, wage controls, benefit mandates, etc.) Tax redistribution perpetuates government and government sanctioned programs. In all cases individual liberty is trumped by the objective of making society more “fair.”

Liberty is not, and has never been, the goal of progressivism. So is progressivism the enemy of liberty? Yes, in the sense that it heavily weights equal outcomes — at the expense of individual liberty — rather than facilitating equal opportunity.

Many liberals/progressives believe their ideology is righteous since it champions the downtrodden and rails against oppressors. And it is. Unfortunately, the mechanisms their ideology employs are nonetheless detrimental to individual choice, achievement and to the power of the fair/free market to advance all sectors.

Let’s be clear: In this country, the end does not justify the means. The quest for a more perfect society by advocating equal outcomes — or even equal opportunity — by any mandate, law or regulation that constrains the spirit of liberty under which this country was founded, cannot advance the great experiment as intended.

The United States of America is not a perfect society and does not aspire to be one. It aspires only to be a place where all men can live freely, exercising their individual rights, to prosper or to fail. It is only when we lose sight of these simple truths and attempt to change the nature of our heritage that we begin to unravel the enormous potential in store for all.